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Protecting yourself against the dark web
A whole different world lies on the dark web. From buying and selling heroin and crack cocaine to someone's lost or stolen credit card.
FOX 2 (WJBK) - In the digital scope of the World Wide Web, criminals like to hide where they can't be seen.
"The dark web is the smallest part of the internet," said David Derigiotis, Embroker. it's built on anonymity and privacy and you need special software to access it."
Anyone can get to the dark web with what's known as a Tor browser - it's perfectly legal to do so. What's troubling is the amount of illicit and illegal activity that can be found if you know where to look.
"This whole world exists on the dark web," he said.
From buying and selling heroin and crack cocaine to someone's lost or stolen credit card.
"This is where stolen payment information ends up," Derigiotis said. "People go in there buy them in bulk, or a single, and they will ship them out to you."
The illegal transactions happen casually. But according to cybersecurity experts like Derigiotis, it's all very calculated.
"When you have fraudulent charges on your credit card, a lot of times because it ended up in this ecosystem right here," he said.
Online we found criminals for hire.
"You can go in here, there's a $5,000 balance," he said. "You can purchase these for $160."
And users who rate this service, offering feedback for other criminals looking to take advantage of helpless victims.
"These are actual reviews that they have, people have purchased these cards," he said. "This person (writes) 'Five-star seller no doubt. Just took a look at the quality of the card it's amazing such things even exist on the dark web. But to actually get it and for it to look that good is amazing work and a great opportunity for less fortunate people to make a living. Thank you.'
FOX 2: "That's a Yelp review of a stolen credit card?"
"Yes," he said.
All of which begs the question what can be done to stop this?
"There certainly are working groups and law enforcement agencies that have alliances all over the world, but they are wrapped up in a number of different things and don't have the bandwidth, time or the resources to tackle these. A lot of times this is small potatoes compared to some of the things that they are working on."
Related: The dark web: Expert talks about accessing it, protecting yourself
The biggest issue FOX 2 found when it comes to policing the dark web is getting law enforcement from across the world to work together.
"The US government just can't reach across and impose their will on different nations," he said.
The dark web is based on anonymity, so tracking down the masterminds is hard to do and even harder to prove.
"Some of them could be funded by nation states, government-affiliated in some cases," said Derigiotis. "But a lot of times they've been able to generate so much money that they put it back into the business."
There are success stories. Just this past December, the FBI took down a massive ransomware attack on the dark web.
While the site itself was shut down, no arrests were made and it's likely some other criminal enterprise will take its place.